A Systematic Review of the Use of Blockchain in Healthcare
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 10 October 2018
- Vol. 10 (10), 470
- https://doi.org/10.3390/sym10100470
Abstract
Blockchain technology enables a decentralized and distributed environment with no need for a central authority. Transactions are simultaneously secure and trustworthy due to the use of cryptographic principles. In recent years, blockchain technology has become very trendy and penetrated different domains, mostly due to the popularity of cryptocurrencies. One field where blockchain technology has tremendous potential is healthcare, due to the need for a more patient-centric approach to healthcare systems and to connect disparate systems and increase the accuracy of electronic healthcare records (EHRs). In this systematic review, an analysis of state-of-the-art blockchain research in the field of healthcare is conducted. The aim is to reveal the potential applications of the technology and to highlight the challenges and possible directions of blockchain research in healthcare. First, background information is discussed, followed by a description of the exact methodology used in this paper. Next, an analysis of the results is given, which includes a bibliometric overview, an analysis of gathered data and its properties, and the results of a literature quality assessment. Lastly, there is a discussion of the results from the analysis. The findings indicate that blockchain technology research in healthcare is increasing and it is mostly used for data sharing, managing health records and access control. Other scenarios are very rare. Most research is aimed at presenting novel structural designs in the form of frameworks, architectures or models. Findings also show that technical details about the used blockchain elements are not given in most of the analyzed publications and that most research does not present any prototype implementation or implementation details. Often even with a prototype implementation, no details about blockchain elements are given.Keywords
Funding Information
- Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS (P2-0057)
This publication has 44 references indexed in Scilit:
- BBDS: Blockchain-Based Data Sharing for Electronic Medical Records in Cloud EnvironmentsInformation, 2017
- A review of existing and emerging digital technologies to combat the global trade in fake medicinesExpert Opinion on Drug Safety, 2017
- A Secure System For Pervasive Social Network-Based HealthcareIEEE Access, 2016
- Blockchain technology in healthcare: The revolution starts herePublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2016
- Where Is Current Research on Blockchain Technology?—A Systematic ReviewPLOS ONE, 2016
- MedRec: Using Blockchain for Medical Data Access and Permission ManagementPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2016
- Healthcare Data Gateways: Found Healthcare Intelligence on Blockchain with Novel Privacy Risk ControlJournal of Medical Systems, 2016
- Blockchains and Smart Contracts for the Internet of ThingsIEEE Access, 2016
- Bitcoin and Beyond: A Technical Survey on Decentralized Digital CurrenciesIEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 2016
- Bitcoin Message: Data Insertion on a Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrency SystemPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2015